Fringe Bikes

     Sometimes I think about bikes. Okay, a lot of the time I think about bikes. I always play the "what bike do want now" game in my head. Doing research online, checking different stuff out. It changes over time. I have a road bike and it is perfectly great for road biking. It is a nice bike, and I love road bikes because you hardly have to maintenance them compared to mtn bikes. They barely get dirty ever. I love that. So I never think about road bikes.
     I am always thinking about mountain bikes though. I have 4 of them. But am continually interested in different ones than the ones I have. Lately I have been thinking about two different kinds.

Fatbike:

     My dad got a Pugsley over Xmas and I got to ride it around some. I even did a 12 mile road ride on it. On snowy-ass crappy-plow-job Maine roads. It was fun as heck! I was incredibly surprised at how well it rode. I figured I would go twice as slow as on a normal bike, but I think it was more like 25% slower. And it makes up for slowness with the fact that it will ride over damn near anything you can pedal it on. I want one.
     There is a rapidly growing movement of folks who love these bikes, and ride them on snow, sand, and whatever else a normal mtn bike sucks on. Heck you can ride them on normal trails and I have a feeling they would be super fun there too! I think the Northern Midwest and Northern New England is ideal for these bikes. These areas usually have tons of snowmobile trails around, and the snow is often dense and hard. I am not certain I would get a ton of use out of it here where I live, as the snow we get in the mountains here is deep, and super low density. All the snowmobile trails are up in the mountains. There aren't any that close to my house. Yellowstone Park would be epic on a fatbike in winter, but for some stupid reason aren't allowed in the winter season. If that should change I think it would be game on. I mostly ride dirt roads in the winter in the valleys, which are usually fine for a normal mtn bike. I like being able to ride out my door during the week.

And for that I think I might like to try a:

Singlespeed rigid 29er.

     Speaking of dirt roads in the valleys....I think this type of bike here would be great for them. Super simple, reliable, dirt road cruiser. Back to the roots of mtn biking.  Most of the valley roads are fairly flat which may make it okay to ride singlespeed. Also, this would be a cheap platform to check out the 29er situation, of which I am still somewhat suspect but very curious.
     Not that I need another bike. But that's beside the point. No one ever NEEDS a new bike. But when you wake up at 4am and need something to do, sometimes you think about bikes. At least I do.

Finally A Night Ride

Good to get out last night. Did about an hour of uphill. It was 40 out and windy, pretty warm really. My feet didn't even get cold. I haven't been riding at night cuz my old light crapped out on me and I am waiting for a new one. I borrowed the Cateye commuter light off Steph's town bike, and had a headlamp on, and it worked just fine. Two cars passed me on Swingley, which is roughly paved for about a mile, then dirt. There is no snow in Livingston now, just a few drifts in the ditches. I will keep riding till we get some real winter conditions. The mountain snowpack is really poor, and 3 people died in avalanches last weekend so I think the splitboard is staying home till things improve out there.

Lamar River Trout Fun

 900: Leave house, gas up, get snacks, hit the road south to the park.

930: Realize I forgot bear spray at home for the second weekend in a row. U turn and lots of cursing, and an extra hour of driving. I already own two bear sprays or I would have just bought one in Gardiner.....it's still unnerving to head into country where there are things that actually will eat you. A couple people have already been snacks this year alone.

1100 At Tower Junction. Head to Lamar.

1200 on the Lamar River. I brought too much stuff with me. Backpack, big camera, fishing pack, rod, 2 bearsprays....I looked like Fishing Tourist Number One. Crap.

No one on the river where I am at though. No sign of fish either. I started throwing a nymph rig out, and got no love at all. I was wet wading in my sandals and the water was cold as hell. I decided to hike downriver a bit...mostly to wait for the water to warm up a little.




The air temperature was ridiculously warm. I bet high 80's. I was sweating just walking around. Further downstream the river was really cool. It was the kind of river I really like to fish. Big enough, slowish, but with big boulders strewn around. Not too many though that it was hard to navigate, but enough to make good runs and pockets in between big pools.  I fished the lower Gardner River the previous weekend and it was really jumbled up and difficult to work through. This part of the Lamar has enough space to be really easy to deal with.

I caught a number of rainbows and cutthroats on a hopper/dropper rig. I went with the hopper setup after walking downstream in the meadow and kicking up hordes of little 1" brown grasshopppers. It is  amazing that fish go for some of these hopper patterns that look absolutly nothing like a real grasshopper. Two of the fish I caught were actually snags on the dropper which was pretty weird. They came up, decided the hopper really didn't look like a real hopper, and turned right into the dropper nymph and got snagged. That was the first time that's happened to me. 

Chubby little Rainbow snag. Oops. 

Crap picture of a cutthroat. This one actually tried to eat the fly. Good job buddy! All the fish I got were in the 10-12" range and were quite spirited once they got hooked!

It was a great day of fishing. At one point I caught two fish on two consecutive casts, which is always a surprise. The last fish I got had a strange thing happen. It was fighting the line near the surface, and I saw a big trout cruise underneath it near the bottom. He went by twice and I think he was hoping for a free meal! The fish on my hook was 10", and the cruiser must have been 20" or so. That was a new one to me. I know the big ones eat the little ones, but eating a meal 50% your own size? Wow. 

Noticed the Shop Vac dropper I had on only lasted about 4 fish before it was toast. I think it worked better when it was half unravelled and shaggy, but then worked less well as a bare hook after all the dressing fell off...!  Need to start tying my own flies soon. Signed up for a class in November so hopefully that will be a start. 

Also, there was no one around in the section I chose to fish! Pretty incredible. I cruised further up the road when I was done and there were a bunch of folks fishing where the river got really close to the road. World renowned trout fishing river....no people near me. Fantastic. 

 Last weekend on the Gardner was fun, but I liked today better. A little easier to get around on the river, and easier currents to deal with. 

Wyoming Fishin' Mission

4 days of Wyoming fun were had by the crew from Livingston at the end of August. Left Thurs AM at 630 and didn't come back till Sunday night.

Day One: Drive through Yellowstone to the East Entrance, and fish the North Fork of the Shoshone River. Catch a ridiculous amount of rainbow trout of the 18" variety. Stay at Matt's family cabin in the woods. Drink whiskey and play poker till 4 am. Summary: EPIC DAY! 

Day Two: Fish the North Fork again with Grif and Joe who came in Thur. nite. Another epic fishing session. We were stacked up five deep down the river and were all catching fish. Those buggers were hungry! Wow! 

 Then drive a few hours to Devils Canyon over by Bighorn Lake. Load up the ATVs and head in to the canyon.

Day Three: Fish Devils Canyon, Wyoming Style....The Razor was the pimp ride of the weekend. Robby Gordon edition gets it done, with custom diamond plate roof, and custom thermarest fly rod holder system....! Tiny creek full of fish that pretty much ate whatever you threw out there. None were bigger than about 12" but they sure were fun! Good camping too by the creek: dutch oven cooking, swimming session including cannonballs, shooting guns, saw a black bear, drank more whiskey....

Day Four: Ride out and head home....satisfied. 

Big Empty

Living in Montana has one overarching benefit I think I most enjoy. Space. Big Space, with NO PEOPLE. Couple this with the fact that such space can be reached from my doorstep within about 5 miles.

Yesterday's Ride:
Mtn Bike
1.75 hours
20 miles

This is what I am talking about:


Having this type of stuff available to ride after work from my door, no driving involved, makes me really happy. This stretch of road is about a 30 minute pedal from my door. We may not be able to ride the mountain trails till late May or June this year, but I will get by with rides like this no problem. I saw one car on this road, and two dirtbikers. In two hours. Just wonderful rolling hills with views of the mountains. Did I mention it was also above 60 degrees out for the first time this year! It felt like summer all of a sudden.


This is the view coming back down looking towards town.


A lot of people wonder about living in Livingston vs. Bozeman, and this is the big reason I like it over here better. If it were like Bozeman over here, there would be subdivisions all the way out this road and it would be paved and busy. As it is, it remains ranchland and that's all. Someday it may be different but I hope it stays like this for as long as possible.